typography Typography is the art and technique of arranging type to make written language legible, readable and appealing when displayed. The arrangement of type involves selecting typefaces, point sizes, line lengths, line-spacing ( leading), and ...

, the Thibaudeau Classification is a way to group

typefaces A typeface (or font family) is the design of lettering that can include variations in size, weight (e.g. bold), slope (e.g. italic), width (e.g. condensed), and so on. Each of these variations of the typeface is a font. There are thousands o ...

into four general families, according to shape and serif character. Invented in 1921 by the French typographer

Francis Thibaudeau Francis Thibaudeau (1860, Cholet, France – 1925, Paris) is a French typographer and creator of the first well-established system for classifying typefaces, the Thibaudeau classification. He devised his system while developing the catalogues ...

, it was expanded by

Maximilien Vox Maximilien Vox (real name: Samuel William Théodore Monod) was a French writer, cartoonist, illustrator, publisher, journalist, critic art theorist and historian of the French letter and typography. He was born on 16 December 1894 in Condé-sur-N ...

in 1954, and again in 1962 by

Association Typographique Internationale The ATypI () or Association Typographique Internationale (the International Typography Association) is an international non-profit organisation dedicated to typography and type design. The primary activity of the association is an annual fall confe ...

(ATypI) into the

VOX-ATypI classification In typography, the Vox-ATypI classification makes it possible to classify typefaces into general classes. Devised by Maximilien Vox in 1954, it was adopted in 1962 by the Association Typographique Internationale (ATypI) and in 1967 as a British S ...

of 11 families. The Thibaudeau system is nevertheless still beneficial in that it is simple to comprehend. Thibaudeau later supplemented the classification by adding the category of the ''Écritures'' (for the scripts) and the ''Fantaisies'' (for the advertising or display typefaces).

Elzévirs

This family contains typefaces with triangular serifs. It corresponds to the three classical categories (humanists, garaldes and transitionals) from the

Vox-ATypI classification In typography, the Vox-ATypI classification makes it possible to classify typefaces into general classes. Devised by Maximilien Vox in 1954, it was adopted in 1962 by the Association Typographique Internationale (ATypI) and in 1967 as a British S ...

. Examples:

Garamond Garamond is a group of many serif typefaces, named for sixteenth-century Parisian engraver Claude Garamond, generally spelled as Garamont in his lifetime. Garamond-style typefaces are popular and particularly often used for book printing and b ...

Palatino Palatino is the name of an old-style serif typeface designed by Hermann Zapf, initially released in 1949 by the Stempel foundry and later by other companies, most notably the Mergenthaler Linotype Company. Named after the 16th-century Italian ...

Times Roman Times New Roman is a serif typeface. It was commissioned by the British newspaper ''The Times'' in 1931 and conceived by Stanley Morison, the artistic adviser to the British branch of the printing equipment company Monotype, in collaboration w ...

Didots

This family groups typefaces with linear or hairline serifs. It generally corresponds to modern or Didone categories. Examples:

Didot Didot may refer to: * Didot family, family of French printers, punch-cutters and publishers that flourished mainly in the 18th century * Didot (typeface) Didot is a group of typefaces. The word/name Didot came from the famous French printing and ...

Bodoni Bodoni is the name given to the serif typefaces first designed by Giambattista Bodoni (1740–1813) in the late eighteenth century and frequently revived since. Bodoni's typefaces are classified as Didone or modern. Bodoni followed the ideas o ...

, Walbaum Roman

Égyptiennes

This family contains

slab serif In typography, a slab serif (also called ''mechanistic'', ''square serif'', ''antique'' or ''Egyptian'') typeface is a type of serif typeface characterized by thick, block-like serifs. Serif terminals may be either blunt and angular ( Rockwell), ...

typefaces, called Mechanistic in the Vox-ATypI classification. Examples: Memphis, Rockwell

Antiques

This is the

sans serif In typography and lettering, a sans-serif, sans serif, gothic, or simply sans letterform is one that does not have extending features called "serifs" at the end of strokes. Sans-serif typefaces tend to have less stroke width variation than ser ...

family. In Vox-ATypI classification, this family corresponds to the Lineals. Examples: Futura,

Univers Univers () is a large sans-serif typeface family designed by Adrian Frutiger and released by his employer Deberny & Peignot in 1957. Classified as a neo-grotesque sans-serif, one based on the model of nineteenth-century German typefaces such a ...

Arial Arial (also called Arial MT) is a sans-serif typeface and set of computer fonts in the neo-grotesque style. Fonts from the Arial family are included with all versions of Microsoft Windows from Windows 3.1 on, some other Microsoft software ap ...

Helvetica Helvetica (originally Neue Haas Grotesk) is a widely used sans-serif typeface developed in 1957 by Swiss typeface designer Max Miedinger and Eduard Hoffmann. Helvetica is a neo-grotesque design, one influenced by the famous 19th century (1890s) ...

...

References

*Devroye, Lu
"Typeface Classification"
McGill University. *''Typographie & Civilisation'' web site (French)

Typography